The Newest: 2 GOP ladies seated on Senate Judiciary panel

January 4, 2019

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Senate Majority Mitch McConnell has seated two Republican ladies on the Senate Judiciary Committee, one thing he pledged to do final yr after Supreme Court docket Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s contentious hearings.

McConnell introduced that Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn will be part of the panel. Blackburn is a freshman senator who was sworn in Thursday.

The Republican aspect of the Judiciary dais was all male in October when the panel heard allegations from a feminine professor who mentioned Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her years in the past. Three Democratic ladies sit on the committee.

Conscious of the optics, McConnell mentioned afterward he would work to nominate extra ladies to the panel. He mentioned he had tried earlier than however feminine Republican senators hadn’t been . He mentioned that had been a “frustration.”

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4:55 p.m.

President Donald Trump is congratulating Democrat Nancy Pelosi (puh-LOH’-see) hours after she was sworn in as Home speaker.

Trump tells reporters throughout a shock look within the White Home briefing room that Pelosi’s election to steer the Home is “an amazing, super achievement.”

The president says he’s hopeful “we’re going to work collectively” on points similar to infrastructure and extra.

He says: “I feel it’s really going to work out. I feel it’ll be a bit of bit completely different than lots of people are considering”

Reporters had been informed that White Home press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was going to be delivering a briefing on the 13th day of the partial authorities shutdown.

As an alternative, Trump appeared and spoke for the primary time from the White Home briefing room podium.

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3:10 p.m.

Nancy Pelosi (puh-LOH’-see) known as for youths to affix her as she was sworn into as Home speaker.

Dozens of kids gathered round Pelosi on the dais as she raised her proper hand as took the oath of workplace. She’s the primary girl to carry the workplace, and now she’s additionally the primary girl to return to it.

Pelosi mentioned on Thursday: “I now name the Home to order on behalf of all of America’s youngsters.”

Pelosi invited her grandchildren to return to the speaker’s podium, after which mentioned different youngsters within the chamber have been welcome to affix them.

Many members of the brand new Congress introduced their little children and grandchildren together with them for the opening day of the brand new Congress.

It was harking back to the scene eight greater than a decade in the past when Pelosi was first elected speaker. She had served as speaker from 2007 to 2011 earlier than Republicans took again management of the Home.

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3:05 p.m.

Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi has cited an sudden individual in her first remarks after taking the Home majority. It’s singer Tony Bennett, who Pelosi calls “a real American patriot.”

Bennett, who marched for civil rights, was one in every of a number of individuals who sat in Pelosi’s official speaker’s field. He waved when Pelosi talked about him.

Others on Pelosi’s visitor listing included her household, Mickey Hart of the Grateful Useless and Tim Gunn of the TV actuality present “Mission Runway.”

Her company cheered and hollered as she was sworn in and took the gavel. They laughed when the California delegation sang “California, right here we come” and adopted Pelosi down the middle aisle.

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2:35 p.m.

Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi (puh-LOH’-see) is laying out her agenda for the brand new Democratic majority, saying the American folks have “demanded a brand new daybreak.”

In her first remarks after successful election as speaker, Pelosi says the Home should combat for the center class in method that’s truthful and financially sound whereas additionally defending Medicare, Medicaid and Social Safety.

She says the Home should additionally tackle local weather change, which she calls “the existential menace of our time.” The California Democrat says the American folks perceive the urgency of addressing world warming and “the Congress should be part of them.”

Pelosi additionally says that Democrats will even pursue laws to decrease well being care and prescription drug prices and work to rebuild the nation with “inexperienced and fashionable infrastructure from sea to shining sea.”

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2:30 p.m.

Fifteen Democrats have defected but it surely wasn’t sufficient to maintain Nancy Pelosi (puh-LOH’-see) from being elected Home speaker.

The veteran Californian gained the Home’s prime submit Thursday with 220 votes. That’s two greater than she’d have wanted if all of the chamber’s 435 members had voted.

Pelosi received the job after an election that noticed Democrats acquire 40 seats within the November elections.

A major variety of her occasion’s candidates pledged to not again her for speaker after years of Republican advertisements casting her as a harmful liberal. Pelosi clinched her election final month after promising to serve not more than 4 extra years within the job.

Of the 15 Democrats who didn’t assist Pelosi, 10 have been incoming members. Twelve backed different Democrats and three voted “current.”

GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California received 192 votes, all from Republicans.

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2 p.m.

The Home has elected Nancy Pelosi as its speaker as Democrats take command of the chamber for the brand new Congress.

The close to party-line majority vote makes her the nation’s strongest Democrat because the occasion begins two extra years of confronting President Donald Trump. Besides now, Pelosi’s Democrats will have the ability to set the Home’s legislative agenda and conduct investigations of the Trump administration that Republicans shunned once they held the bulk.

Thursday’s vote restores Pelosi to the submit the Californian held from 2007 till 2011. She’s the one girl to ever maintain the chamber’s prime job.

Pelosi, of California, reclaimed the job after Democrats gained 40 seats within the November elections, their largest pickup in 4 many years.

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1:20 p.m.

The Senate of the 116th Congress has been sworn in.

The brand new senators mingled with their colleagues and some predecessors as they walked as much as the dais in teams of 4 to be sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday. New senators discovered their desks, some wanting inside to see which senators had left their signatures.

The one new senator to not be sworn in was Republican Sen.-elect Rick Scott, who obtained permission to finish his time period as Florida’s governor. He can be sworn in Jan. 8, when his time period ends.

Twenty-nine new and re-elected senators have been sworn in. They included Sens. Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema (SIN’-uh-muh), who ran towards one another. McSally misplaced to Sinema however was appointed to exchange the late Sen. John McCain.

The Related Press contributed to this report.

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